Loose poker players are aggressive poker players. A loose player takes a lot of risks in chase of the big rewards. They play a lot of hands and are less likely to fold when challenged by other gamblers. The category of Loose Player consists of two sub-categories. First of them is the Passive-Loose player.
A player who qualifies as Passive-loose reckons the pot odds as only a friendly suggestion. They will continue to call no matter how strong their hand is, or what they believe the strength of their opponents’ hand is. They are everlasting optimists, thinking that any two cards can make the difference at any time of the play.
What makes them passive is that they will call almost every time, but they will rarely raise. They stay in the game all the way to the bitter end, but do not add that extra element of risk. Almost as a rule, these players don’t bluff well. Passive-loose players tend to slowly bleed to death financially during a poker game. These type of gamblers are also called ‘Fish’. This is a pretty weak category of player and over time they will be losing players.
This type of poker player will play too many hands and then will continue to call bets even when though the correct play would be to either fold or raise, and this is why they are sometimes also called Calling Stations. These types of players count on luck, and without it they are unlikely to have a good poker session. They will disregard (or just not be aware) of pot odds and will call down bets when they simply haven’t got the odds to do so.
Aggressive-loose players are very aggressive and seem to consider raising a form of worship. These poker players will raise before and after the flop, and they will try to bully the table. People who play this way will win a lot of small pots but tend to fade out when the big money is on the line.
This type of player will constantly be raising before and after the flop and will play a lot of hands. They are not very selective about their starting hands and they also play too many hands. The way they compensate for not holding good cards is to be aggressive and put pressure on their opponents to fold the winning hands.
The winning way to play against these types of players is to tighten up and wait for your best hands. When you do hit your premium hands, then you will get paid off very well by this type of gambler, so it is worth while passing up your marginal hands and letting him win 10 small pots and then taking a big pot off him with your premium hand. The problem of this type of players is they will go broke very quickly.
The good online players love to play against this type of player, as they know a big payday is coming up. Of course, there are a lot of good Aggressive-loose players, but the great majority are weaker players who are trying to play Aggressive-tight but getting it wrong, playing too many starting hands, and playing aggressively at the wrong moments.
You better pay particular attention to hands that are raised before the flop. Keep notes on what cards the loose player will call with to a substantial pre-flop raise. Always be careful not to over-estimate calls made on the blinds or in position. Look for weaker hands that call one or more raises in poor position.
The most important thing to remember when playing loose opponents is that they will sometimes catch cards. This is unavoidable to happen. They will hit goofy straights and catch runner-runner flushes against you, bad beats are inevitable as well. But remember – do not tilt!. For all these types of loose players, the first and one of the most important things you must do is to play tighter than normal. Keep playing solid tight poker against them, and your solid wins will out number and out stretch the bad beats that you have suffered.
